The Bridge Device
by Pchefbeth
Summary: Jo is having disturbing dreams that haunt her during the day. The dreams scare her enough to seek answers which threated to shake her world to its core. Post Season 4 ep 9. Question Everything! Nothing is as it seems.


**The Bridge Device**

_Jo is having recurring dreams that haunt her during the day and she's afraid that she's starting to hallucinate again. She seems to be the only one who's having these dreams but she doesn't know why. The dreams scare her enough to seek answers which threaten to shake her world to its core. Post Season 4, episode 9. Nothing is what you think it is. Question everything. While I question everything, in reality I own nothing. Season 4.5…here is my prediction. _

Noise filtering in out of the dark. She could feel her body, just faintly there, but unresponsive to commands. She felt heavy, motionless. Briefly she wondered if this was what it felt like to be dead. Another noise came from her left but she couldn't turn her head to see, and panic set in as new noises, and whiffs of chemical smells wafted through her nostrils.

'_She's crashing'_, a voice said in the dark. '_We're losing her_,' said another voice that sounded strangely like Allison. The dark seemed to press against her, pressing her down, and down, but out of the dark came another voice, familiar and steady in her ear, '_Come on Jo-jo, don't you give up on me now'_.

Jo awoke suddenly, nearly shrieking as she gasped for breath, and found herself soaked in a cold sweat. As her eyes adjusted to the dim pre-dawn light she realized that she was in her bedroom. She stared dazedly around the room as she tried to comfort herself with the fact that it had just been a dream, willing it to fade from her waking memory. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and bowing her head, tried to steady her breathing. It had happened again. Like the others, she couldn't remember very much from the dream. But this one wasn't fading as fast as she would have liked. Instead this morning's dream of faceless voices in the dark, and feeling as though the dark was dragging her down, had genuinely scared her. After she had served a tour in Afghanistan she used to have recurring dreams about some of her missions there, but they had faded after time. These dreams felt like they were getting stronger.

Glancing down at her left hand she realized that it was still tightly closed in a fist, as though she had been holding onto something, or someone. Willing herself to relax her hand, she opened it and frowned. She could swear that she could still feel the warmth of someone's hand grasping hers. _Zane_. Even now she could still hear the voice from her dream which she knew to be his. '_Don't you give up on me now_.' She sighed. She would have thought that she would be used to dreaming of him by now. She'd been dreaming about him almost every night that she could remember since they had arrived in this timeline. Her subconscious just couldn't quite get over him; and truth be told neither could the rest of her. She hadn't spoken to Zane, this-Zane in several weeks, not since the disastrous conversation in the sheriff's office where they had kissed. Afterwards they had stepped back several large paces and studiously worked to avoid each other. She rubbed hers eyes and wondered if not seeing him was making it worse. The dreams had gotten much worse after the hallucinations had stopped. Perhaps she was still feeling some residual effects from it, though no one else seemed to have any issues. She tried to convince herself once again to discuss it with Allison later that day.

She sighed again and glanced back dispassionately at the twisted sheets on the bed. It was early still, far too early to get up, especially considering that she hadn't been sleeping very well lately, but she just couldn't bring herself to try to fall asleep again. Resigning herself to another caffeine fueled day she stood and walked to her closet to get dressed for a run, hoping that it would help clear her head, if not her heart.

_Later that day_

Jo hung up the phone at her desk weary from the long day. She glanced at the clock and grimaced, it was almost 3pm and she hadn't had a chance to stop and eat lunch yet, or she remembered belatedly, talk to Allison. She leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temples trying to assuage the low level headache that she had been fighting all day. Her run this morning hadn't managed to chase the dream away from her completely. She still felt haunted by the sound of Zane's voice. It had taken her a while to figure it out, but it had dawned on her why it sounded so different; in her dream he had sounded frightened. It was that realization that had made the dream stay with her like it had. She had never heard him sound scared or frightened in all the time that they had known each other. He'd always managed to maintain a cool and level head, whether it was dealing with injuries to himself or a dangerous situation. She'd never heard him sound like he had in her dream.

Angry at herself, at some part of her subconscious that apparently wanted him that way; she pushed back from the desk and stalked down the hallway to the elevator. She needed to see Allison now and find a way to get rid of these dreams. She wasn't a fan of sleeping pills, never had been, but she'd take them now if it would quell the voices in the dreams.

Lost in her thoughts she walked into the infirmary and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of a familiar head at the infirmaries central computer hub. The dark haired figure didn't even pause at the sound of the door opening her was so engrossed in his work, but the quiet announcement of her name by the Medical Director made him jerk his head up in surprise.

"Jo," Allison said as she came towards her, hand outstretched. "How are you doing? I haven't spoken to you in days. I was thinking that I would need to cause some sort of incident down here in order to see you." Out of the corner of her eye Jo saw Zane quickly glance up at her and then back down at his screen, but his fingers were no longer quickly typing on the keyboard.

Acutely aware of their audience, Jo cleared her throat and spoke as quietly as she could to Allison "I need to speak with you, privately," she emphasized.

Allison stopped mid stride, and turned to look at Jo. "Is there something wrong?"

Jo turned her body, angling it away from Zane as she spoke sotto voice and said, "I think I may be having some residual effects from the hallucinations that we were having a few weeks ago."

Allison narrowed her eyes and studied Jo, concern immediately in her eyes. "You're hallucinating," she asked.

Jo shook her head, wincing slightly at the loud tone of Allison's question. "No, I'm not hallucinating anymore, I'm just having some pretty strange dreams. "

"Jo," Allison said concerned, "if the head of Security has been having hallucinations you know that I can't keep this to myself. I have to tell the Director and Mansfield."

"Allison, we were all hallucinating after the incident with the D.E.D device," but then faltered at the look on Allison's face as she went from a concerned friend to a super concerned medical doctor.

"Who is we," Allison asked as she steered her over to an infirmary bed and forced her to sit down as she pulled out a pen light and shined it in Jo's eyes.

Jo grabbed her hand anxiety mounting in her gut. "You, me, Carter, and Fargo. We were all hallucinating right after Henry and Grace's BBQ."

Allison slowly lowered the penlight and stared at her. "Jo, none of us have had been having any hallucinations. Carter would have told me if something strange was going on, and Dr. Fargo just had to undergo his annual physical last week." She coked her head at Jo as if just hearing her words. "When did you start calling Douglas by his last name? You know he hates that."

Jo stared in shock at Allison as she continued. "Jo, I need to contact Mansfield and contain you while we do some psychiatric evaluations to determine if you're having a mental breakdown."

Jo balked and stood up, slowly trying to back away from Allison.

Suddenly Zane was standing behind Allison, "All right Lupo, you win, you win," he said as he pulled out his wallet and pulled out a 20 dollar bill.

Allison turned to look between Zane and Jo, "Win what-what's going on?"

As Allison turned to look at Jo again, Zane made a face behind her urging Jo to stay quiet. "Ms. Special Forces here," Zane began forcing Allison to turn back to look at him, "took exception to my mocking of her acting skills last week when she was pretending to listen to that consultant that Mansfield brought in about the D.E.D Device. I bet her $20 that she couldn't make someone believe that she wasn't lying. She got to choose the subject but I chose the target."

Allison turned back to look suspiciously at Jo who plastered a fake smile on her face. "Gotcha," she said weakly.

Allison put her hands on her hips as she stared at Jo. "This entire thing was a prank," she asked incredulously. "Jo, you could have gotten in serious trouble!"

"Sorry Allison," Jo said weakly, "I didn't mean-"

"Always so serious Lupo," Zane chided as he moved towards her, taking her arm and herding her towards the door. "We'll leave you to it Doc," Zane said and he squeezed Jo's arm to be quiet. "Come on, why don't you buy me a vinspresso with your new found winnings," he said as he grinned back at Allison.

Jo managed a quick wave at Allison who looked after them a little suspiciously as Zane pushed her out through the door.

Out in the hallway, he didn't drop her arm or urge her to walk any faster as they headed towards the elevators. "Where are we-," she began, but he shushed her until they got onto the elevator and the doors closed. Once inside he dropped his hand from her arm and stepped back so that he could face her. "You want to tell me why I just saved you from career suicide in there?"


End file.
